Today's red post collection includes a Jhin's champion bio, champion insights article on Jhin's development, Reav3 discussing skin splash art updates, a grab bag from Meddler on Jax nerfs & Taric's, a new episode of the League Community Podcast, an update to the Champion Update schedule, a look at POROFOLIA on the BR servers, and much more!

Champion Bio: Jhin, The Virtuoso

Jhin is a meticulous criminal psychopath who believes murder is art. Once an Ionian prisoner, but freed by shadowy elements within Ionia’s ruling council, the serial killer now works as their cabal's assassin. Using his gun as his paintbrush, Jhin creates works of artistic brutality, horrifying victims and onlookers. He gains a cruel pleasure from putting on his gruesome theater, making him the best choice to send the most powerful of messages: terror.

For years, Ionia’s southern mountains were plagued by the infamous “Golden Demon.” Throughout the province of Zhyun, a monster slaughtered scores of travelers and sometimes whole farmsteads, leaving behind twisted displays of corpses.

In desperation, the Council of Zhyun sent an envoy to beg Great Master Kusho for help. Upon hearing of the region’s plight, Kusho feigned an excuse for why he couldn’t help. But a week later, the master, his son Shen, and star apprentice Zed, disguised themselves as merchants and moved to the province. In secret, they visited the countless families emotionally shattered by the killings, dissected the horrific crime scenes, and looked for possible connections or patterns to the murders.

Their investigation took four long years, and left the three men changed. The famous red mane of Kusho turned white; Shen, known for his wit and humor, became somber; and Zed, the brightest star of Kusho’s temple, began to struggle with his studies. Upon finally finding a pattern to the killings, the Great Master is quoted as saying: “Good and evil are not truths. They are born from men and each sees the shades differently.”

Depicted in a variety of plays and epic poems, the capture of the “Golden Demon” would be the seventh and final great feat in the illustrious career of Lord Kusho. On the eve of the Blossom Festival in Jyom Pass, Kusho disguised himself as a renowned calligrapher to blend in with the other guest artists. Then he waited. Everyone had assumed only an evil spirit could commit these horrifying crimes, but Kusho had realized the killer was an ordinary man. The famed “Golden Demon” was actually a mere stagehand in Zhyun’s traveling theaters and opera houses working under the name Khada Jhin.

When they caught Jhin, young Zed marched forward to kill the cowering man, but Kusho held him back. Despite the horrors of Jhin’s actions, the legendary master decided the killer should be taken alive and left at Tuula Prison. Shen disagreed, but accepted the emotionless logic of his father’s judgment. Zed, disturbed and haunted by the murder scenes he had witnessed, was unable to understand or accept this mercy, and it is said a resentment began to bloom in his heart.

Though imprisoned in Tuula for many years, the polite and shy Khada Jhin revealed little of himself - even his real name remained a mystery. But while a prisoner, the monks noted he was a bright student who excelled in many subjects, including smithing, poetry, and dance. Regardless, the guards and monks could find nothing to cure him of his morbid fascinations.

Outside the prison, Ionia fell into turmoil as the Noxian empire’s invasion led to political instability. War awoke the tranquil nation’s appetite for bloodshed. The peace and balance Kusho had famously fought to protect was shattered from within as dark hearts rose in power and secret alliances competed for influence. Desperate to counter the power of the ninja and Wuju swordsmen, a cabal within the ruling council conspired to secretly free Jhin and turn him into a weapon of terror.

Now with access to the Kashuri armories’ new weapons, and nearly unlimited funds, the scale of Khada Jhin’s “performances” has grown. His work has brought fear to many foreign dignitaries and to Ionia’s secret political underground, but how long will a serial killer, craving attention, be satisfied working in the shadows?"

Champion Insights: Jhin

"We started with a blank page, and ended with a killer.Here are the steps in between.

Design notes by August Browning aka Riot Gypsy

Art notes by Larry Ray aka The Bravo Ray

Narrative notes by Odin Shafer aka WAAARGHbobo

Our initial goal was pretty clear: we wanted to deliver on a sniping fantasy that was notably different from Caitlyn’s long range gunning. If anything, her fast rate of fire and unlimited ammo aligns her closer to a semiautomatic rifle-wielding gunner, whereas we wanted to really explore what it felt like to use an old fashioned, bolt-action sniper rifle. We aimed for a champion who had slow and impactful shots, who could express skill through their long-range snipes, and who’d apply pressure with their shots even if they missed. One way or another, every shot would count.

Early Inspiration

Early sketches focused on a mysterious robot cowboy bounty hunting sniper - not the easiest elevator pitch - but the concept quickly hit the proverbial icebox as we focused on other further developed concepts. A couple of champs progressed from concept into production, in fact, while our sniper chilled out in his icebox, including a certain death-centric duo. After we figured out Kindred’s theme, we felt that a bounty system was a better fit for them, so pulled the mechanic from the sniper. Without the bounty hunting, we were still left with a mysterious robot cowboy sniper - still a cool idea, and still something we wanted to explore. So we came back, set on executing this long-range sniping fantasy. Initially, we just gave him a sniper rifle, but the range and speed still felt too close to Caitlyn, so we started thinking of ways to differentiate him. We eventually settled on the concept of a constructible weapon, something that looked like a short-range sidearm for basic attacks, but that could be assembled for long-range sniping with his abilities. The idea stuck, so August started looking at ways to necessitate planning and execution, emphasising carefully timed and placed shots as opposed to your average marksman’s attack speed-fuelled barrage of withering basic attacks. As we started discussing the concept internally, we quickly realised that the term “sniper” felt wrong - there was just too much overlap with Caitlyn, and the term implied that everything he did would be at supreme range - so we started thinking about a better development term for the character.

"August started looking at ways to necessitate planning and execution, emphasising carefully timed and placed shots..."

The Deadeye

The term “Deadeye” fit perfectly, encompassing aspects of a long range killer without the excess baggage that came with the sniper term. August started diving into this Every Shot Counts idea, and implemented an ammo system for his basic attacks. Meanwhile, Deadly Flourish quickly turned into the longest range basic ability in the game, but would be most effective when his allies had already marked his target. This was our attempt to bring the feeling of spotting - where others call out targets for their sniper to shoot - to League! What’s more, Deadly Flourish, along with Curtain Call, tied into the sniping fantasy much better, because they cover huge range, but most importantly, can miss. This added a ton of skill into the abilities, of course, and would mentally affect Deadeye’s target even if he didn’t land his shot. You’ve seen movies where soldiers run for cover after a sniper takes his first shot, and that was a heavy inspiration for the feel we wanted to convey with Deadeye.

"Deadly Flourish was our attempt to bring the feeling of spotting - where others call out targets for their sniper to shoot - to League."

Massive range meant that Deadeye needed to set up his sniping nest too, which became a really important part of his gameplay as we started testing his kit. Deadeye had to think about where he could be most effective, and while enemy teams would start piling in thinking they were on the better end of a 4v5, they quickly learned their lesson and started asking themselves that single, fear-laced question: “Where’s the sniper?”

Four is the magic number

August fixed Deadeye’s ammo count to four - the low number meant that every shot count, and meant we could ramp up the damage so that, well, every shot hurt, too - and we liked the idea of the fourth shot being the deadliest from a mechanics perspective. But why would Deadeye save his most powerful shot for last? We started looking at his character, and actively turned the number four into a common repeating motif for him. Deadeye doesn’t want to just kill you - he wants to kill you perfectly by slowly building up to a sublime death. Odin started thinking of Deadeye as an artist, and built in references to music - specifically opera - in his voice lines and personality. We doubled down and repeated four as a key number in his kit, with four bounces on his grenades, and four Curtain Call shots. We found that this actually echoes well with our own world, where the word “four” sounds like the word “death” in Chinese, and is, because of that, a deeply feared and unlucky number in many parts of Asia. It was perfect for Deadeye.

It’s all in the eyes

His theme and mechanics were taking shape, so we started experimenting with Deadeye’s visuals. We were still trying ideas around this robot cowboy look, but wanted to see how different factions around Runeterra would shape Deadeye’s appearance. We tried out some Zaun designs, gave Deadeye a mask and made his gender ambiguous. Next we wanted to try adding some unsettling asymmetry to his shape. Larry drew up a few silhouettes, and one really grabbed the team:

"Deadeye needed to appear human, appear normal, only to realise as you drew closer that something was off. Really off."

Why the hump? What was that thing? It formed a strong point of curiosity for us that we loved, alongside the constructible gun. Next Larry drew up some animation studies, and we saw what the hump actually was - part of his weapon - and how he moved. Stakeholders were instantly onboard, so we iterated further, turning Deadeye into a darkin, then a woman. Next we tried Ionia, and immediately found traction with their ornate architecture and form over function design ethos. Settling there, we elongated his body and turned his mask into a real intricate work of art. We steered away from robotics because it lacked the elegance that Deadeye’s character was fast developing, and didn’t click with his burgeoning feel. In fact, we knew the character was turning into a pretty nasty killer, but in order for him to be truly terrifying, we wanted him to look approachable. Deadeye needed to appear human, appear normal, only to realise as you drew closer that something was off. Really off. We came to call this “The Lie”.

The Lie

Odin continued refining Deadeye - now named Jhin - into a monster. But not the Rek’Sai-style rip-your-head-off-and-eat-your-heart kind of monster. We wanted Jhin to be a real psychopathic killer, someone who you could interact with, but who wasn’t all there. He seems to be smiling, but he’s not: that’s just his mask. Jhin searches for a justification for doing what he does, and similar to Dexter, Deadeye might appear normal, but is a true monster inside, hellbent on his art and giving his victims the perfect death.

Butterflies and Roses

We were on the home stretch. We took a look at Jhin’s weapons, and aimed specifically at creating magical guns rather than strictly ballistic weapons. Hammering home his artistic aspirations, we looked at Jhin’s rifle, and added a fountain pen-like nib to its barrel. Finally, we applied a color pass to him, and decided to give him bright, lively shades that emphasised his peacocking. His main three shades - purple, white, and gold - directly reference roman emperors, so while Jhin’s very much equipped to kill, he’s also dressed to impress.

Finally, and this isn’t normally something we reference in these articles, but that original robot cowboy concept did actually make its way onto the Rift. It’s his launch skin - High Noon Jhin - a nice little hat-tip to the original concept that created the Virtuoso.

"While Jhin’s very much equipped to kill, he’s also dressed to impress."

We’ll be back soon for Jhin’s Q&A session, so get your questions ready for the Rioters who created him!"

Reav3 on Skin Splash Art Updates

Following the recent skin splash art update dev blog and comments that Trundle, Nidalee, and Tristana are likely to be the next three champions that were previously updated and will be receiving new skin splash arts, Reav3 returned to the boards for more discussion!

As for why Trundle, Nidalee, and Tristana splash updates are on deck, Reav3 explained:

"We wanted to get a wide variety for the first update. There isn't one singular reason for each champion being chosen. While there are many reasons that went into these 3, I can try and break down the primary reasons real quick.

Trundle - Highest disparity between current skin splash and current in-game modelNidalee - We already have a majority of her skin splash are 80%-90% completeTristana - This is the champion we teach new players how skins work (through the riot girl Tristana facebook give away)

As for the reasoning behind Sion being high priority. Sion currently has the lowest skin usage in the entire game. This means that people use skins on Sion less then any other champions. Not sure if this has to do with the models or that Sion has 0 high quality skin splash art. I personally love the new Hextech Sion Model, but the current splash art doesn't really reflect how awesome it is imo.

This isn't to say we will do Sion next as we haven't talked about who we will tackle after we get through the 3 mentioned above. "

"First we decide which Champions we want to target, so Nid/Trist/Trundle in this case. After that me and HUGEnFAST (one of the Art leads on Champ Update and Primary Illustrator) sit down and go through each skin splash with the criteria below.

Does the Skin Splash Art match the new model?

Is the Skin Splash Art up to the modern Riot Splash Art Standards?

To answer your questions about the Chinese "Stop-Gaps," I don't think any of those are on par with current splash art standards.

To use Nidalee as a example, when we looked at her skin splashes we determined that only Challenger Nidalee, Headhunter Nidalee, and Warring Kingdoms Nidalee where at Riot's current Splash Art Standard.

I hope this answers both of your questions"

When asked how this ties into the five new splash skin arts from the 5.20 cycle,Reav3 noted:

There was a previous initiative to update old skin splash art. This was done somewhat randomly before by many artists around riot. I can't speak for why those specific skin splash art where chosen since I am not a part of those teams.

Those efforts are now being organized a bit better towards specific targeted champions. This is why we have some partially finished skin splash's for Trundle/Nidalee/Trist that are being rolled into this initiative.

There are however a few that were started before we started this initiative, so there may be a few random ones that come out in the near future. Our goal going forward is to concentrate our efforts into specific champions at a time."

I can't really to speak to when and what champions we get to next. As I mentioned above, these are lower priority then the big reworks like Poppy and Shen. The champions we do next and when we get to them will depend on the bandwidth at that time.

The reason we are able to make a large push on 3 champions right now is mainly due to the fact that the 2 big champion updates we have in development, Taric and Yorick, have very few skins. This frees some of our resources up to work on some past champions skin splashes.

Which and how many champions we do next will depend on what champion reworks we have in development after Taric/Yorick. MF has A LOT of skin splashes that need to be updated so we would need to do them at a time where we had decent bandwidth, where as someone like Karma has much fewer in need of a update."

Gothic Annie is fine as is and would not get updated. Since hers aren't the worst offenders currently, she probably isn't as high priority as some other champions, but we would like to get to her eventually."

As for when they will continue to update base splash arts, Reav3 added:

"Unfortunately I can't really speak to the state of Base Splashes.

The skin splash rework plan is being tackled by the Champion Update team. The goal is to go back and update skin splash art for champions we have done Visual Updates to in the past. Many of the skin splash art for these champions no longer match the in-game model post-update."

As for when we might be able to expect the Yorick update, Reav3 noted:

"The Champion Update team has grown much larger since the Sion Rework. It's worth mentioning that Tristana/GP were technically full VGU's (New model/vo/anims/gameplay.) Although Trist/GP didn't need as much work on there core themes and gameplay as Sion/Poppy did, they were still very similar is scope/time.

While Yorick is currently planned for sometime after the "mid-year" mage update, barring some huge catastrophe, he should be released before 2017."

"Welcome to the latest installment of the League Community Podcast, a series in which we take you behind-the-scenes with the people who help make League possible. Expect new guests and new stories every couple of weeks or so, and make sure to hit us with those sweet comments and ratings so we can keep striving toward a Challenger tier podcast.

This week, we switched gears a bit and sat down for a more conversational episode with a couple dudes from the Trinity Force Podcast Network, namely Adam “pwnophobia” Cogswell and Robert “Declawd” Iwanski. Join us as we chat with them about the network, content creation, and differently-abled gaming."

Meddler Grab Bag - Taric, Jax, and more!

Next up we have several comments from Meddler on Taric's update timing, Jax's PBE nerfs, and more!

When asked about Taric's upcoming champion update and when we can expect to see it, Meddler noted:

"Taric's almost certainly going to be the next full relaunch released. Exact timing's not completely certain yet, odds are good he'll be after the next new champion (after Jhin), but before the new champion after that."

When asked if they still plan to do an assassin class update, Meddler commented:

"We're doing a mage update mid year. Assassins are a group we'd like to get to at a later point, there are a few other good options for the class after mages too though. Given how far away that is, we won't be committing to a class, let alone identifying individual champions and their possible changes, for quite a while."

"We feel Jax's jungle performance is too strong at the moment in high tier play, while his performance is too strong across the board in low-average skill games. In particular he's getting to max stacks quicker than he should, subverting one of his intended weaknesses (ramp up time).

As usual, average win rate's something we look at, and associated with power, but not functionally identical to it. It's worth looking at of course, it's certainly not irrelevant, but does need to be treated with caution. That's especially true with data with a reasonable margin of error, which is the case with the various third party sites like Champion.gg. Looking at our internal data we're seeing win rates of 48% for top and 53% for jungle for example across all Elo ranges."

"AD champs are sometimes given AP ratios to support off builds or to give a small amount of power from items with some AP on them that may be attractive otherwise (e.g. Trinity Force back when it gave some AP). The amount of power in that AP ratio's basically nonexistent for AD builds though, so removing it wouldn't buy as any room to give Jinx more AD ratios.

As to why Flame Chompers don't scale with AD in the first place that's because they're intended to be a primarily utility effect, particularly as the game goes on. Jinx's damage is heavily concentrated into her auto attacks in a way that wouldn't be as possible if her E damage scaled well with items."

Mage Update and Yorick added to Champion Update Schedule

Axes on Duskblade of Draktharr

When asked about the new AD assassin item Duskblade of Draktharr item on the PBE, Axes explained:

"Quote:

No. It gives the balance team a lever to address the balance of AD assassins, who have consistently been hard to balance due to sharing items with ADCs and AD fighters. In the past, because the risks of falling behind were catastrophic (you couldn't assassinate anything, and essentially became dead weight for your team), the reward (annihilating carries) had to be enormous to compensate. With the addition of this item, the risk of AD assassins has gone down, meaning that the reward case can be adjusted more freely, leading to more balanced assassins across the board.

This is definitely one of the goals.

To put it another way, AD assassin itemization has been so poor that they're just balanced around getting less power than everyone else from items (or when they haven't been, it's been equally problematic itemization like The Brutalizer). If they have at least a core set of items available, we don't need to make up for it on their kit.

That said, just want to set some expectations here - this is incremental improvement at best, we're not going to 'fix' assassins (whatever that ends up meaning) at this scope of work."

I don't understand, how does this not boost a 'feasting' assassin?I understand the bonus damage will help someone who's behind, but an ahead champion it's just more damage, to get further kills even easierThe famine'd assassin who has to proc the passive won't even get the cool-down back to help them chain kills together.How is this lever operating exactly?

In terms of the item being better when behind - as quite a few of the Assassin players have quite colorfully illustrated with their responses in this thread, a fed Assassin doesn't get to use the proc well. They'll kill a squishy target too fast to get the proc off, then they'll expend the proc on the next opponent they attack, when they don't have as much of their burst available (cooldowns) and when the target isn't the one they're most interested in killing.

There are definitely plays for that champion with the item where it can be quite valuable (its still potent, as it should be - we don't want a situation where if you get three kills, you sell it for something else, after all), but its not as valuable as it is when behind.

The point VeniVediVelcro made is slightly different - it's that when the item system doesn't serve a class of champions well enough, the kits have to compensate for that power (else you just have a class of weak champions). That would typically mean either a strong or very safe lane phase (so the champion tends to get more gold than average) or a lot of kit-level late game power. And given that it's nearly impossible to put someone more than a few levels behind, kit-level late game power is much more reliably acquired than late game power from gold.

Just releasing this item doesn't fix the problem, but balancing the game going forward (EDIT to clarify: I mean normal balance over time, not some new balance project or anything like that) with better assassin items will allow us to at least make some progress on it."

As of 1/28 PBE update, here's the current version of Duskblade of Draktharr:

Light over dark: Creating Lunar Revel’s triptych

"The origins of Lunar New Year are slightly different depending on who you ask. But most versions involve a giant monster named Nian (“year” in Chinese). The story goes that, threatened by Nian, a village pounded on drums and lit fireworks to scare the beast away. Fast forward a few thousand years or so and most modern Lunar New Year celebrations still pay homage to the fireworks and thunderous celebration that spooked Nian, including League of Legends’ Lunar Revel celebration.

This year with Lunar Revel, we wanted to dive a little deeper into these core mythical elements of Lunar New Year and create something new and exciting for players to explore.

More than lanterns

“When we were looking back at previous Lunar Revels, it was like ‘Oh, red, gold, lanterns,” says art lead Lisa Thorn. “It didn’t have much of a narrative arc.” The team behind Lunar Revel worked to weave specific Lunar Revel themes into this year’s experience, focusing on the battle between light and dark and the idea of starting the new year with an optimistic outlook. Creating a massive triptych (a single image spread across three panes or frames) and using it to craft a Lunar Revel story felt like a great way to communicate these themes while still giving the new skins room to shine.

The team explored a huge range of art styles and gathered voluminous examples of Chinese art as it searched for the perfect Lunar Revel idea. “We started looking into traditional Chinese art, and that was sort of the moment where we thought, ‘Okay, triptychs are really cool,’” says Thorn. “It felt traditional and respectful, but also super unique from what we’ve done in the past.”

Senior concept artist Suke says, “We really wanted to show more respect for the mythology and culture that inspires this event.” Suke skipped over Chinese art tropes like bold reds, wispy dragons, and glowing lanterns. “I played with different colors and techniques. The gold foil, for instance, is more contemporary, but the clouds and lines are more traditional. We were really trying to mix classical and modern elements into the triptych without leaning on tropes.”

The story of the skins

The Lunar Revel triptych is more than a pretty picture. It tells the story of this year’s Revel and the skins that accompany it. “I think this is one of the first times we’ve done a single illustration that tells a full story,” says Thorn. “Everything we did for Lunar Revel is focused on the idea of light vs. dark. It’s more than Wukong in a badass pose, and the triptych is the most obvious representation of the theme.”

Writer Matthew Manarino explains, “Caitlyn and Morgana’s designs are based on demons common to Chinese mythology. Wukong’s design is based on the idea of the radiant hero who always bests these demons in famous Chinese myths.” With the triptych, says Manarino, the Lunar Revel team was able to capture the darkness of the demons and the radiance of Wukong, while creating a legend that ties all the skins together and pays homage to their influences.

Telling the light vs. dark story also helps add meaning to the way people experience the skins. “I think it’s so cool that we’re introducing the skins with an epic story this time,” says Thorn. “We’re trying to evolve Lunar Revel and connect it to deeper themes rooted in cultural mythology.” She continues, “It’s really compelling to be a part of a fantasy with meaningful characters.

That’s not to say there’s nothing for fans of old-school Lunar Revel skins to enjoy. Suke says, “There are references to champions of previous years and their Lunar Revel skins -- we put a lot of effort into small touches that make the image more meaningful to all of our Lunar Revel champs and the players who love them.” Players who look closely will find Lunar Revel favorites like Firecracker Jinx and Dragonwing Corki tucked away in different parts of the image.

In the end, the team is hopeful the triptych provides something players can enjoy beyond the expected Lunar Revel stuff. Says Thorn, “We hope it’s meaningful in addition to being cool. We want players to have fun exploring it and finding its secrets, and to enjoy the story it tells: light always wins out over dark.”"

University League of Legends

"With over 300 student-run League of Legends clubs at colleges and universities across the U.S. and Canada, League is becoming an increasingly important part of campus life.

In University League of Legends, we profiled six of these clubs and the unique ways they contribute to the League community.

Whether it’s a 30-hour LAN at Montana State, “League of Lectures” at the University of Washington, or students from Emerson College producing a League-inspired mockumentary, these clubs are providing new opportunities for students to get together and share their love for League of Legends.

For more information, check out uLoL’s website and let us know about your campus club in the comments below!"

Chroma Surveys Going Around

As happens from time to time, Riot is currently sending surveys to players regarding chroma skins and potential future purchase options - including IP purchase options, sales, and various other questions.

"Like he said, we've surveyed around this before. I posted this last time, but it's just as true today! Recycling posts OP!

We survey players on a lot of potential changes, and most of them don't go into effect. In fact, there are several versions of this survey to help us learn. We really appreciate being able to ask players for feedback and do our best to incorporate it into what we make. For now, we haven't made any decisions on how chromas will be offered to players in the future. But I can say we want to make them easier for players to get."

With that expectation in check, click [here] and [here] for screenshots of two of these survey if interested.